EPPP practice questions: what they look like

No real EPPP question is public. ASPPB, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, which owns the exam, treats its items as protected by copyright and as trade secrets, and its Candidate Handbook says no part of the exam may be copied or reported, so the honest way to see what an integrated EPPP question looks like is to read how ASPPB describes its items and then to practice on original questions written in that shape. This guide does both. It sets out ASPPB's own description of the integrated EPPP's questions, gives six original questions, one from each domain, with the answer, the reasoning and the document behind each, describes ASPPB's own sample exams, and says where the course's 2,902 practice questions are. None of the course's questions is printed here: practice is in the app, and the Consultation and Supervision domain is free with a free account.

The short answer

An integrated EPPP question tests knowledge put to use. ASPPB says its items are "designed to evaluate candidates' ability to apply knowledge in professional settings," and that while questions "may be practice-based and application-focused, they evaluate foundational knowledge, clinical reasoning, ethical decision-making, and professional judgment common across the profession, rather than specialty-specific expertise." ASPPB has published no integrated EPPP question, and the exam's own items are protected, so the six questions below are original, written for this guide in that shape: each puts a situation in front of you, a client, a supervisee, a study or a clinic, and asks what is happening, what it means or what to do next. ASPPB's own sample exams are built like its exams, and ASPPB says plainly what they are and are not for.

How ASPPB describes an integrated EPPP question

ASPPB's FAQ for the beta test and the integrated EPPP lists four item types: "Traditional multiple-choice questions with three or four response options," extended multiple-choice questions, scenario-based case studies "accompanied by a series of related questions," and "Questions based on multimedia content, such as audio or video materials." It has not said how many of each a form holds, or described what an extended multiple-choice question is. Our guide to the EPPP's format and scoring sets out what is known about each type, the 215 questions and the five hours.

What ties the types together is the level they are written to. "All items are developed with the expectation that a minimally competent entry-level psychologist can answer them, regardless of specialty area or practice setting," ASPPB says, and the standard-setting process "evaluates whether a minimally competent psychologist would be expected to answer each item correctly." The exam "remains a general licensure examination by assessing competencies that are essential for entry-level independent practice across all areas of psychology." For preparation, that points to breadth across the six domains rather than depth in one specialty, and to judgment at the level of the work: what a psychologist entering independent practice should know and do.

For today's exams, ASPPB's Candidate Handbook prints sample questions of its own. "Sample EPPP knowledge questions are provided in Appendix B," it says, and "Sample EPPP (Part 2-Skills) questions are provided in Appendix D," with a link to further Part 2 sample items. They were written for the current EPPP (Part 1-Knowledge) and EPPP (Part 2-Skills), not for the integrated exam, and they are ASPPB's to read in its Handbook; this guide does not reproduce or reword them.

What a question here is made of

The questions in this course, and the six below, are the integrated EPPP's traditional multiple-choice type: a stem, four options and one best answer, standing alone. They are text only: where an exam item would play a recording, ours describes in words what it would show. Each has the same parts.

A situation. A few sentences of facts: who, where, what has happened. The facts are chosen so that one of them decides the answer, so read for the detail that matters, not for the setting.
A lead-in. The last sentence names the task, such as the most likely explanation or the best next step. When a classification decides the answer, the lead-in names it, as in asking for the most appropriate diagnosis using ICD-11.
Four options. One is the best answer. The others are wrong for a reason you can state, usually because they are true of something else, true but not enough, or the step a hurried reader would take.
The reasoning. Each answer says why the key is right, why each other option is wrong, and which document it rests on, so a question you get right still teaches you something.

Six questions in the integrated EPPP's shape

Each of these is original, written for this guide from a document you can read yourself, and each ends with the reasoning, as the course's questions do. There is one from each domain, in the blueprint's order: Scientific Orientation to Practice, Assessment, Intervention, Consultation and Supervision, Interpersonal Relationships, and Ethical and Professional Practice.

How the exam asks itScientific Orientation to Practice

A university counseling center screens all first-year students for anxiety and invites the 40 with the highest scores to a group that begins two weeks later. All 40 complete the same scale again at the first session, before any treatment, and their mean score is clearly lower. The most likely explanation for the drop is:

A. History, from an event between the two administrations.
B. Statistical regression toward the mean.
C. Instrumentation, from a change in how the scale is scored.
D. Attrition of the most anxious students before the retest.

Answer: B. The students were chosen because their scores were extreme. Statistical regression, as Petursdottir and Carr give Campbell and Stanley's definition, "refers to the tendency for extreme scores on one observation to be closer to the mean on the next observation, because extreme scores are likely to contain greater measurement error (considered to be random) than scores closer to the mean," and it "may threaten the internal validity of an experiment by mimicking a treatment effect, especially if the researcher selects participants for study based on their initial extreme scores." Here the drop came before any treatment, so it cannot be a treatment effect. All 40 took the same scale again, which rules out attrition, and nothing in the situation points to a change in scoring or an outside event. A study of a group chosen this way needs a comparison group to tell regression from change. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How the exam asks itAssessment

A research team gives a published depression scale to an English-speaking community sample and its Spanish adaptation to a Spanish-speaking sample. The Spanish-speaking sample's mean is higher. Before the team compares the two groups' scores at all, it must establish:

A. That a back-translation of the Spanish version matches the original.
B. That the two samples are equal in size.
C. That the difference is statistically significant.
D. That measurement invariance holds across the two versions.

Answer: D. The International Test Commission (ITC) is plain in its guideline SSI-2: "Only compare scores across populations when the level of invariance has been established on the scale on which scores are reported." Its explanation adds: "do not make comparative statements about the levels of respondent performance in the two language groups unless measurement invariance has been established for test scores being compared." Without that evidence, a higher mean could come from the adaptation, an item that reads differently in Spanish, rather than from the people. A matching back-translation is not enough, since the ITC notes of the forward and backward translation designs that "both designs have flaws"; equal sample sizes say nothing about the scale; and a significance test is part of the comparison, not the condition for making it. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How the exam asks itIntervention

A community clinic starts every adult with mild or moderate depression in a guided self-help program, and moves to individual cognitive behavioral therapy only those whose scores on a depression scale have not improved by the sixth week. This way of organizing care is best described as:

A. Stratified care.
B. Collaborative care.
C. Stepped care.
D. Indicated prevention.

Answer: C. In the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2023 depression guidelines, "Stepped-care delivery refers to a care model in which patients access sequential treatments of increasing intensity as needed, according to prespecified criteria such as severity of illness," and people usually "enter at the least intensive 'step' shown to be effective for their illness and move up or down depending on symptom progression or response." The clinic does exactly that: everyone starts with the lighter treatment, and a score at the sixth week decides who moves up. Stratified care would instead match each client from the start "to receive treatments customized to both the severity and complexity of their needs"; collaborative care is a primary care framework built on "2 or more health professionals"; and the clinic is treating depression it has already found, not preventing it. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How the exam asks itConsultation and Supervision

Two months into supervision, a postdoctoral resident who used to bring difficult cases now presents only routine ones and answers questions briefly. The change began after the supervisor criticized one of the resident's risk assessments in a team meeting. The supervisor's best next step is to:

A. Raise the strain in their working relationship openly with the resident.
B. Wait until the resident chooses to raise the concern in supervision.
C. Give all future feedback in writing to avoid another public conflict.
D. Ask the training director to reassign the resident to another supervisor.

Answer: A. The American Psychological Association's 2025 supervision guidelines ask supervisors to "review regularly the working alliance and the effectiveness of the supervisory relationship, proactively addressing issues that arise," and say that when disruptions occur, "supervisors seek to address and initiate resolution of impasses, strains, and ruptures openly and honestly, with humility." The resident's withdrawal after public criticism is that kind of strain, and the guidelines put the first move on the supervisor, who also holds the "inherent power differential in the relationship" the guidelines ask supervisors to recognize. Waiting leaves the repair to the person with less power, written-only feedback avoids the problem without resolving it, and reassignment ends the relationship instead of mending it. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How the exam asks itInterpersonal Relationships

A psychologist with years of multicultural training, whose self-rated multicultural competence is high, expects work with a new client from a cultural group the psychologist often serves to go smoothly. According to the American Psychological Association's Multicultural Guidelines, which caution applies?

A. Self-ratings of competence have been found to match clients' ratings.
B. Competence may vary from client to client within a caseload.
C. Training completed in the past ensures competence with new clients.
D. Familiarity with a group predicts competence with each of its members.

Answer: B. The Multicultural Guidelines caution that "clients' ratings of therapists' multicultural competence and therapists' self-perceived multicultural competence have been found to be discrepant," and that "Therapists' multicultural competence may also vary from client to client within the same caseload." A high self-rating and long experience with a group therefore promise nothing about this client. The first option reverses the finding, since the ratings have been found to differ, not to match, and the last two assume a competence that holds for everyone in a group, which is what variation from client to client rules out. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How the exam asks itEthical and Professional Practice

After losing a job, a client in weekly therapy for depression offers to repair the psychologist's office furniture in place of the session fee. Under the American Psychological Association's Ethics Code, the psychologist may accept this arrangement only if it is:

A. Written down in a contract that the psychologist and client sign.
B. Approved in advance by a colleague the psychologist consults.
C. Not clinically contraindicated and not exploitative.
D. Equal in market value to the fees for the sessions it replaces.

Answer: C. Standard 6.05 of the Ethics Code defines barter as "the acceptance of goods, services, or other nonmonetary remuneration from clients/patients in return for psychological services" and allows it only if "(1) it is not clinically contraindicated, and (2) the resulting arrangement is not exploitative." Those two conditions are the whole test. A written agreement, a colleague's view and an equal value may each be sensible, but the standard requires none of them, and none would make a harmful or exploitative barter acceptable. The question names the American Psychological Association's code, so its standard decides; the course teaches the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists beside it. Written for this guide in the exam's shape; it is not an exam question.

How to practice with questions

Use a question bank as a test, not as reading. A few habits help.

Answer before you look. Cover the options, read the stem and say what you would do or conclude. Then find your answer among the four. If it is not there, read the stem again for the detail you missed.
Read every reasoning, including the ones you got right. Why each wrong option is wrong is where the distinctions are, and the exam's options are built from them.
Mix the domains once each is studied. The exam draws on all six in one sitting, so practice that moves between them is closer to the day than six blocks done in order.
Practice at the exam's pace. The integrated EPPP has 215 questions in five hours of testing, about 84 seconds a question on our arithmetic, so a timed set is worth doing before the day. The course's mock runs the full length on one 300-minute clock.
Keep a record of the misses. A wrong answer is information about a domain, not a verdict on you, and the pattern across many questions says more than any one score.

ASPPB's own sample exams

ASPPB sells sample exams for the current EPPP (Part 1-Knowledge) and EPPP (Part 2-Skills), taken online or at a Pearson VUE test center, and they "can be purchased and taken multiple times" by candidates whose licensing authority has authorized them to take the EPPP. ASPPB is direct about their limits. "Because the sample exams consist of old, retired, or unused EPPP knowledge items, they are not recommended for you to take in order to assess areas where additional study might be needed," its Sample Exams page says. "Rather, they allow you to take exams that are similar in test specifications, formatting, and functionality to the operational EPPPs." Our guide to what the EPPP costs lists their prices and what each one includes.

The integrated EPPP has a sample exam of its own, for a narrower group: it is available "to candidates approved as licensure applicants in an ASPPB member jurisdiction and authorized to take the EPPP Beta." It was "Developed using the same blueprint and test development processes as the operational integrated EPPP," and ASPPB says it "contains 100 questions and allows 150 minutes for completion." ASPPB designed it "to provide candidates with an experience similar to the actual examination."

ASPPB does not provide preparation materials of its own. At its virtual town hall of December 11, 2025, under "How to prepare for the EPPP?", its slide said that "ASPPB as the owner of the EPPP is not involved to provide test preparation materials," and pointed candidates to the "EPPP Candidate Handbook and Sample Exams."

Why recalled questions are off limits

Lists of questions "remembered" by people who have sat the EPPP circulate under many names. ASPPB's position on them is in the "Candidate Acknowledgement Statement" in its Handbook: "This examination and the items contained therein are protected by copyright law and constitute valuable trade secret information, the disclosure of which will cause injury to the ASPPB. No part of this examination may be copied or reproduced in part or whole by any means whatsoever, including memorizing and/or reporting items, item topics, or exam content unless previously authorized by the ASPPB."

So a collection of recalled items is not a shortcut. It is exam content that candidates have undertaken not to report, of unknown accuracy, for an exam whose integrated form is new. Every question in this course is original, and none is EPPP content.

Where the course's questions are

The course holds 2,902 questions across its 85 lessons and the six domains, each with the reasoning and the document it comes from. None of them is printed on this site: they are read and answered in the app, where your progress is kept, and the six above are not among them. The Consultation and Supervision domain is open in full with a free account: its eight lessons with their 320 questions and their flashcards, so the format can be tried before anything is bought.

Full access opens the other five domains and the timed mock: 215 questions on one 300-minute clock, each domain drawn at its share of the exam, 43 questions from each of the three 20% domains, 32 from each of the two 15% domains and 22 from the 10% domain. How practice works describes the bank by domain.

QualExam is independent of ASPPB, and nothing here comes from the exam itself.

Where to start

Get a study plan. A free account starts with a short diagnostic, 18 questions in about 25 minutes, and builds your study order from the exam's weights and from what you already know.
Read a domain in full. With a free account, the eight Consultation and Supervision lessons open in full, with their questions and flashcards.
Know the exam you are preparing for. The format guide covers the item types, the 215 questions and the scoring, and the blueprint guide the six domains and what each covers.
Practice at length. Full access opens all 85 lessons and their 2,902 questions, and the timed 215-question mock.

Key takeaways

The integrated EPPP's items are "designed to evaluate candidates' ability to apply knowledge in professional settings," written so that a minimally competent entry-level psychologist can answer them, whatever the specialty.
ASPPB lists four item types, from traditional multiple-choice questions with three or four options to case studies and audio or video, and has not said how many of each a form holds.
Six original questions above, one from each domain, each with the answer, the reasoning and the document it rests on; none is a real exam question, and no course question is printed on the site.
ASPPB's sample exams use old, retired or unused items, so ASPPB recommends them for the format and conditions, not for finding what to study; the integrated sample exam is for candidates approved for the beta.
Recalled questions are exam content candidates undertake not to report; the course's 2,902 original questions are in the app, the Consultation and Supervision domain free with a free account.

By QualExam editorial. Written against the certifying body’s published documents, pinned by hash so a revised edition shows up as a change.